training: day seventy-nine
biking! i did the full race distance (40k or 24.85 miles) in just under two hours, without trying really hard. i rode from 6 to 8 am. i garnered a lot of attention, mostly because it's not every day you see a pudgy white girl in black and blue spandex on funky-looking road bike flying down the highway (i rode a rolling, hilly area, so i could practice descents). i had a whole busload of school kids waving at me, which i found amusing.
training: necessity is the mother...
...and cold arms are a mother, too. however, my riding jersey is short-sleeved. and i didn't want
to wear a jacket, so i got myself some ghetto armwarmers. my "armwarmers" are re-purposed japanese legwarmers. seriously. they cost 100 yen (about 88 cents). they're made from this really soft plushy material and are really stretchy so they didn't fall down at all during my ride. and they are stripey, which is an added bonus. japanese women have skinny legs and i have sausage arms, so it worked out well, despite being warmers being a just a tad bit short for my gorilla girl arms. the cost of the Canari jersey balances out the cheesiness of the arm-legwarmers. i leave my shoes clipped in, plus walking around in them is bad for the bottoms, so i wore regular sneaks while chris snapped the pic.
also, i want to get these real armwarmers.
training: room with a view
...rice paddies, the mountains (with snow still on), flower gardens, strip malls, irrigation ditches (raised, so it was weird to have the water on the same level as the road) street vendor ladies--old enough to be god's grammas, patches of blue sky, hawks, horses, more than one souped-up crotch rocket motorcycle (although one guy gave me a thumbs-up), an old lady on a bright teal three speed (i almost wanted to trade her my bike)...oh yeah, and man (and bike) eating potholes.
training: drink this!
my kimono sensei gave me a some sort of crazy-ass japanese health tonic today. she's become my unofficial coach/nutritionist. she was right about the rice being a good snack, so i duly slugged back whatever the hell it was, and even though it tasted like ass, it really worked. i feel hella better.
biking! i did the full race distance (40k or 24.85 miles) in just under two hours, without trying really hard. i rode from 6 to 8 am. i garnered a lot of attention, mostly because it's not every day you see a pudgy white girl in black and blue spandex on funky-looking road bike flying down the highway (i rode a rolling, hilly area, so i could practice descents). i had a whole busload of school kids waving at me, which i found amusing.
training: necessity is the mother...
...and cold arms are a mother, too. however, my riding jersey is short-sleeved. and i didn't want
to wear a jacket, so i got myself some ghetto armwarmers. my "armwarmers" are re-purposed japanese legwarmers. seriously. they cost 100 yen (about 88 cents). they're made from this really soft plushy material and are really stretchy so they didn't fall down at all during my ride. and they are stripey, which is an added bonus. japanese women have skinny legs and i have sausage arms, so it worked out well, despite being warmers being a just a tad bit short for my gorilla girl arms. the cost of the Canari jersey balances out the cheesiness of the arm-legwarmers. i leave my shoes clipped in, plus walking around in them is bad for the bottoms, so i wore regular sneaks while chris snapped the pic.also, i want to get these real armwarmers.
training: room with a view
...rice paddies, the mountains (with snow still on), flower gardens, strip malls, irrigation ditches (raised, so it was weird to have the water on the same level as the road) street vendor ladies--old enough to be god's grammas, patches of blue sky, hawks, horses, more than one souped-up crotch rocket motorcycle (although one guy gave me a thumbs-up), an old lady on a bright teal three speed (i almost wanted to trade her my bike)...oh yeah, and man (and bike) eating potholes.
training: drink this!
my kimono sensei gave me a some sort of crazy-ass japanese health tonic today. she's become my unofficial coach/nutritionist. she was right about the rice being a good snack, so i duly slugged back whatever the hell it was, and even though it tasted like ass, it really worked. i feel hella better.
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